Lily opened her eyes, her throat so choked with emotion she couldn't speak. The next moment she spotted a small but intensely bright ball of red light rising up through the night sky, heading towards them. Letting out a muffled shriek, she pointed and yelped, ‘Oh my God, it's a-'
Then the red ball transformed into a giant crimson chrysanthemum that was instantly joined by sapphire, bright white and orange bursts of light exploding beneath their flight path like gigantic flowers blooming on fast-forward.
‘It's a firework display!' Belatedly realising that Dan might think she was choosing a creative way to change the subject, Lily exclaimed, ‘It was a firework I saw, not a UFO! I love you too!'
He turned to look at her as they flew over the multicoloured carpet of fireworks exploding far below them. ‘Really?'
‘Really!'
‘In a just-good-friends way, do you mean?' He'd sounded so calm before, but he wasn't feeling calm at all, Lily realised. He was double-checking, being cautious, needing confirmation, and it just made her love him more.
‘Not in a just-good-friends way at all. Quite the opposite kind of way, actually.' She felt her stomach unknot and broke into a smile, finally unafraid to reveal her true feelings; at last she could be honest. ‘There's never been anyone else for me either. It's always been you.'
‘I can't believe this.' Dan reached across for her hand. ‘I just can't believe it's happening. I want to kiss you, but … '
‘You have a plane to fly,' said Lily. Every single cell in her body was zinging with anticipation at the thought of what lay ahead. ‘Are we nearly home yet?'
He gave her fingers a squeeze. ‘I suppose we've waited fifteen years, so another fifteen minutes won't kill us. Unless … have you ever had sex in a cockpit before?'
‘Waiting might not kill us,' said Lily, ‘but sex in a cockpit definitely would. Let's get our priorities right and land safely, shall we?'
Dan was grinning at her. ‘You're the boss.'
Chapter 52
One year later
It wasn't every day you got to see yourself plastered across a huge poster advertising a hotly anticipated, about-to-be-released movie. Lily couldn't stop gazing up at it.
OK, it wasn't actually her face on the poster, but it was the face of the actress bringing her to life on the screen. And having your character played by Mira Knowles was still pretty amazing, not to mention surreal.
‘Well?' said Dan, at her side. ‘How does it feel?'
‘Weird.' Lily leaned against him. They'd viewed the poster online, but this was the first time they'd experienced it in the flesh, so to speak; full-sized and on display for everyone to see.
‘Wait till millions of people have seen the film. That'll be weirder.' Dan brushed his warm mouth against her cheek. ‘We should check in to the hotel. You haven't heard from Patsy, have you? She didn't reply to my text.'
Right on cue, Lily's phone began to ring. She glanced at the screen. ‘This is Patsy now. Hi, where are you? Have you left yet?'
‘We're not going to be able to make it.' The line was crackly and Patsy was sounding distant and out of breath. ‘I'm having contractions. Oh Lily, it's happening, I'm in labour!'
Lily's mouth dropped open. ‘What? Oh my God, really? Right this minute? Are you in hospital?'
‘We're heading there now … ooh ow ow owww … hang on a sec … '
‘She's having the baby,' Lily told Dan. ‘They're on the way to the hospital. Right now!'
Dan regarded her with amusement. ‘You sound so astonished. She has been pregnant for the last thirty-nine weeks, you know. It had to come out sooner or later.'
Lily gave him a thump on the arm. ‘I know, but it's exciting! Pats, can you hear me? Do you want us to come back?'
‘OK, contraction's passed, I'm here again. No way,' Patsy exclaimed. ‘You've got a premiere to go to. No no, you do your thing and I'll do mine. We'll see you tomorrow … Ooh, this weather! Is it raining in London?'
‘Still sunny here.' Lily glanced up at the clear blue sky. ‘Hasn't rained at all. How's Oliver doing?'
‘Trying to be brave on the surface, but underneath he's panicking like a- Ooooh!'
‘Well tell him to drive carefully,' said Lily. She loved Oliver, they all did. The night Patsy had been stood up had turned out to be the best night of her life.
‘Aaaarrgh,' Patsy gasped. ‘I will!'
Patsy's last aaaarrgh hadn't been another contraction. Rather, it had been due to the fact that she'd discovered the flooded lane they were travelling down was more flooded than they'd first thought.
To be fair to Oliver, you couldn't say he hadn't been driving carefully. He'd driven very carefully indeed through the water when it was only a few inches deep, and there had been no indication whatsoever that the lane would suddenly dip and the water become much deeper. Poor Oliver, it wasn't his fault; he wasn't familiar with this nifty short cut she'd told him to take.
Patsy, who was familiar with both the short cut and the sudden dip, had been too busy talking to Lily to pay attention. The rain was lashing down around them, on the radio there were reports of flash-flooding throughout Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, and there were warnings that the emergency services were at full stretch. Patsy looked at Oliver, the man who had made the last year the happiest of her life, and saw his hand tremble slightly as he turned the key in the ignition.
Rurr-rurr-rurr-rurr-rurr …
Nothing happened. The engine was flatly refusing to start. It was like trying to turf a sleeping teenager out of bed with a plastic spoon.
Patsy witnessed the growing panic in Oliver's eyes as the realisation sank in that they could be in real trouble here. And as if in sympathy with the tension in his jaw, the ominous tightening sensation started up again inside her stomach. As before, the first few seconds were fine, then it carried on beyond an acceptable level and became a wave of pain so intense it took her breath away. Ow. Ow.
Rurr … rurr … rur … rur … rur.
‘OK, here goes.' Abandoning his attempt to start the engine, Oliver opened the driver's door and jumped into a foot of murky brown water. ‘Maybe if I can push us out, it'll do the trick.'
He was strong, but not that strong. Under the circumstances, Rambo himself might have struggled. As Patsy clutched her enormous stomach and panted her way through the contraction, Oliver tried and failed to move the car either backwards or forwards. Climbing back inside like a sodden drowned rat – actually, more like a drowned bear – he said in a strained voice, ‘We'd better call an ambulance.'
If there was one available.
Patsy's phone, which had slid to the floor during the last agonising contraction, began to ring.
In their central London hotel, Dan was stretched out on the huge bed in their room, watching as Lily began getting herself ready for the evening ahead. Her hair, still wet from the shower, was rippling down the back of her white towelling bathrobe. Her dress was hanging up in the steamy bathroom to get the last few wrinkles out of the peacock-blue silk. It was early, still only four o'clock, but they were meeting Eddie and Mira for a catch-up before the main event.
‘What are you looking at?' Lily was eyeing him through the mirror as she smoothed foundation into her cheeks.
‘Some girl I fancy,' said Dan.
‘And why are you watching her?'
‘Just wondering if I've got a chance of persuading her back into bed.'
‘You already had your chance, and you took it.' Lily's eyes sparkled as she finished blending in the foundation and reached for her pot of blusher.
Dan loved to watch her doing her make-up. She was fast, but the result was always impressive. He loved the way she widened her eyes as she applied mascara to her long lashes, then leaned forward and raised her eyebrows in order to brush darker shadow into the sockets of her eyes. He adored the way she put on lipstick, pouting, then pressing her lips together. And he knew he'd never tire of watching her tilt her head this way and that as she sprayed scent behind each ear, along her collarbones and – always the final squish – down her cleavage.
Basically, he just loved every single thing about her, more than he could have imagined possible. His friends and work colleagues might tease him for having become a one-woman man, but they didn't know the half of it. If they could only be aware of the thoughts that went through his brain, they wouldn't believe he was the same person. But he was, and he was finally the person he'd always wanted to be. Being with Lily had made his life complete, and he knew without a shadow of a doubt that he never wanted them to be apart.